Four students are now on mission to raise the value of Indian made products

Have you ever wondered what tradition India had in the past? Have you ever thought of our glory? Proofs suggest that the first ever plastic surgery in the history of humanity took place in India. India was so advanced in medical science that people from far away counties used to visit India for their medical treatments.

We discovered Ayurveda and Ayurvedic medicines, obtained from trees, plants, shrubs, hurbs etc, to cure thousands of diseases. We discovered Yoga that is being practised by the people all across the globe to remain fit and healthy. Though Indians don’t give much importance to their own tradition, in other countries Yoga and Ayurvedic treatment is being preferred over modern medicine.

In India, we are gradually forgetting our own traditional values. There is now a general opinion that if we wear cloths made by a foreign company, our society give so much reputation to us, on the other hand, if we put on a countrymade attire, the society doesn’t give the same value- in some cases it looks down upon us.

This is not happening on its own, in fact it is a result of a systematic strategy of the British rulers who impressed the idea that Indian products are of inferior quality while foreign products are of superior quality. We are still imprisoned by the morals they imposed on us. We still stick to the set of teachings they taught us. We are still psychologically their subjects. Isn’t it true that we feel a sense of pride when we speak English (their language) while we don’t hold the same feeling speaking our own language?

This habit of ours has caused a huge loss to our economy and foreign companies have reaped the benefits from our weaknesses and poor sentiments. Countryside artisans, artists, smiths, potters, farmers etc. are suffering a huge loss every year. They struggle to earn a two time meal even after having amazing skills. In one of my articles, I covered the story of an artist who could draw anyone’s photo with his hand in just 8-10 minutes and yet he was extremely poor, he couldn’t provide food on his children’s plate.

Keeping the scenario of India in mind, four students- Rohit Saikia, Abhinav Gogoi, Debankar Saikia and Jiban Dihingia- from Sivasgar and Dibrugarh (Assam) started working in this field when they were in fourth semester at Jorhat Engineering College. To support Indian artisans, they have started a market by the name of EthnoShopping, where country made stuffs will be sold. They purchase stuffs directly from our artists of different parts of the country and sell at a reasonable price. They also donate a huge share of their profit to the poor artisans. Many of artisans are now getting a chance to earn from their traditional occupation only because of these four students.

In the end, I only wish that they will hopefully restore the glory of India once again.